Thane: At least nine persons were killed and 10 others injured after a four-storey building collapsed in Thakurli in the district on Tuesday night.
The building 'Matruchaya', built 35 years ago, collapsed in Cholve village, following which rescue operations were launched by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire brigade officials and civic authorities said on Wednesday.
Kalyan Tesildar Kiran Surwase said that till now nine bodies have been pulled out of the rubble.
However, the operations have been hampered due to continuous rains, District Disaster Management Control Room in-charge Jaideep Visave told PTI.
Meanwhile, Kalyani Patil, the mayor, told news agency ANI that Thane Municipal Corporation had declared the building, constructed in 1972, as a dangerous one and issued a notice a few days ago, but residents didn't vacate the building. Had the residents vacated the building on time, the deaths could have been averted.
At the time of collapse, 20 families were inside the building.
Santosh Kadam of Regional Disaster Management Cell (RDMC) said that some more occupants could be still trapped beneath the debris.
The deceased have been identified as PV Easwaran (67), Usha Kushan (49), Pratik Hajiriya (7), Usha Sundaram and Francis Nadar (44). One of the deceased is yet to be identified.
The injured have been admitted to a local hospital in Dombivili, Visave added.
District Guardian Minister Ekanth Shinde, Kalyan MP Srikanth Shinde, Collector Ashwini Joshi and other top officials are monitoring the rescue and relief work.
(With PTI inputs)
